MS Shanker The rot in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has deepened dramatically, with last week’s crackdown by the Telangana State CID following a damning Vigilance and Enforcement Directorate (VED) report. Five arrests have already been made — including HCA President Jaganmohan Rao, CEO Sunil Kante, Treasurer CJ srinivas, and others linked to the infamous…
Why the Amarjit Dulat episode deserves more scrutiny than spin I’m rather tempted to make that ‘viral video’ the subject of this week’s column. It’s the one where a journalist poses a pointed question. The camera rolls. And what the nation sees next is both shocking and revealing—a former RAW chief, yes, one of India’s…
A Fight for the Soul of the Game: Why Revanth Reddy’s Crackdown Must Go All the Way This is in continuation of my pursuit to expose who is responsible for ruining Hyderabad cricket—not just through corruption and incompetence, but by systematically dismantling an ecosystem that once produced legends, pride, and a legacy few cities in…
“Merit Is Dead”: Former Hyderabad All-Rounder Slams Rot in State Cricket MS Shanker As part of my continuing series, “How to Revive Hyderabad Cricket,” this week I sat down with one of the city’s most quietly impactful cricketers—M.V. Ramanamurthy. A gritty allrounder who played his cricket in the 1980s and early ’90s purely on merit,…
One victim’s frustrating journey through the legal maze after cyber fraud (This is a continuation of the cyber fraud article published in these columns last week. Here, the victim recounts his distressing journey of trying to reclaim his stolen money. — Editor) MS Shanker When he (Radhakrishna, name changed) first discovered that he had been…
MS Shanker Can there be anything more bizarre than a man under the scanner for corruption writing a letter demanding justice for others? That’s exactly what Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) Joint Secretary T. Basavaraju has done. Basavaraju—who is already facing heat after a parent accused his close aide of accepting a bribe for securing a…
How a Former Cricketer Hijacked a Supreme Court-Mandated Reform Panel MS Shanker In a damning new chapter in the saga of Hyderabad cricket’s administrative collapse, fresh revelations by former Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Justice N.A. Kakru, expose the internal sabotage of the very Supervisory Committee that was tasked with cleansing the…
Veteran Umpire Ramaswamy Breaks Silence: “Blame the Club Secretaries” MS Shanker After weeks of speaking to former Hyderabad cricketers—disillusioned, dejected but not defeated—I took a detour. On the advice of some wise old players and my former colleague Jagannath Das, I turned my attention to those who watch the game from the other side of…
In a move that defies logic, mocks national sentiment, and exposes dangerous double standards, the Indian government—through its Home Ministry and the Ministry of External Affairs—has shockingly granted clearance to Pakistan’s national hockey team to participate in two major tournaments in India. The Asia Cup in Rajgir this August-September and the Junior Hockey World Cup…
MS Shanker It began with a phone call. An innocuous ring on a Monday evening. Within ten days, KN Radhakrishna (name changed), a 60-something retired resident of Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad, saw his entire life’s savings—over ₹1.36 crore—vanish into the digital ether. Not to a robber with a weapon, not to an elaborate Ponzi scheme, but to…
